Prep Notes: Cape baseball set for spring break in Hawaii

Cape Henlopen's Griffin Kammerer makes a play in a baseball game against Caravel on Saturday.

After the winter we've had, no one could blame the Cape Henlopen baseball team for wanting to get out of town.

Nine days in Hawaii sounds nice, and that's where the Vikings will be for their spring break in mid-April.

"The kids are looking forward to it," coach Ben Evick said Saturday after Cape opened the season with a 10-0 loss at No. 2-ranked Caravel. "It should be a really good life experience for them."

The Vikings will stay on Kauai, and play games against all three of the island's high schools. Cape will meet defending island champion Kapa'a on April 19, then play Kauai on April 23 and Waimea on April 25. To fit the games into the Vikings' 18-game schedule, they participated in only one preseason scrimmage and the Kauai and Waimea games will be counted as scrimmages.

The team will stay at the Waimea Community Center, and there will be an educational component to the trip as players will attend school at Waimea High for half-days during the week. Evick said Cape Henlopen players worked to raise the money for the excursion.

"We started in September and put together some fundraisers," Evick said. "We had a golf tournament that was really successful, and we did some other things."

Diamond State doings

Diamond State Classic director John Gretchen has finalized the field for the 2014 tournament, which again will bring top girls basketball teams from around the country to the St. E Center from Dec. 27-30.

Three Delaware schools - host St. Elizabeth, Ursuline and Caravel - will be among the eight schools in the national bracket. They will be joined by Narbonne of Harbor City, Calif.; St. Anthony of Long Beach, Calif.; Lawrence County of Lawrenceburg, Tenn.; Cumberland Valley of Mechanicsburg, Pa.; and Cicero-North Syracuse of Cicero, N.Y.

Each of the teams in the national bracket will play three games. Seven more Delaware schools - Padua, Sanford, Concord, Sussex Central, Delaware Military Academy, Tatnall and St. Mark's - will compete in two-game brackets. They will be joined by Harriton of Rosemont, Pa.; Monsignor Scanlan of Bronx, N.Y.; Medgar Evers College Prep of Brooklyn, N.Y.; Trinity of Camp Hill, Pa.; and Council Rock South of Holland, Pa.

Gretchen said attendance at the 2013 tournament was among the best in the event's 23 years, allowing the Diamond State Classic to distribute $13,000 to the Andrew McDonough B+ Foundation, $4,000 to Special Olympics and $3,000 to Kay's Kamp.

National track feats

First State athletes earned some impressive finishes and lowered a couple of state records at the New Balance Nationals Indoor track and field meet March 14-16 at the Armory in New York City.

Tatnall's Stephen Garrett set a state record of 9:11.10 while finishing 10th in the two-mile run. He also finished seventh in the 5,000 meters in 14:53.38.

Milford's Ryan Thomas uncorked the second-best triple jump in Delaware history, soaring 48 feet, 10 ¼ inches to finish fifth. He also placed sixth in the long jump (23-2). Micaiah Dendy of St. Georges took fourth in the emerging elite section of the girls triple jump, covering 38-1½ to move to third on the state list.

Delaware Military Academy's Adrienne Fraczkowski finished sixth in the girls emerging elite two-mile run in 10:54.12, fifth all-time in Delaware. Zach Schmelz of St. Mark's took sixth in the boys emerging elite 200 meters, with his qualifying time of 22.14 seconds placing him seventh on the Delaware list.

Finally, Tatnall set a state record while finishing 10th in the boys 4x1-mile relay. Jack Hagood, Ben Boswell, Garrett and Henry Paul combined to cover the distance in 17:48.95.

Needs overseas

David Needs has resigned as head football coach at Red Lion Christian to become the first head coach of a new football program at Leeds City College in Leeds, England.

Needs is part of the Joshua Warrior Institute, a Christian faith-based organization that shares its faith by using football to build relationships. Needs said American football is expanding rapidly among colleges in the United Kingdom, growing from 40 teams six years ago to almost 90 now.

Lifetime record: 1-0

The first varsity girls lacrosse game in Hodgson history was a success, as the Silver Eagles downed Christiana 12-6 on Tuesday.